To Build A Floating Castle
by Apakoha
Summary: Collection of thoughts, drabbles, ficlets around the Avatar cast. Gen and het. No particular character focus.
1. Crossroads of Destiny

Based on the episode title **The Crossroads of Destiny**.

* * *

Everyone comes to crossroads in their lives. They are frequent and often meaningful, though only very few are such huge choices that they irrevocably change the direction of someone's life.

Even the scarred outcast of a prince who stood behind her had changed the path of his biggest regret in Ba Sing Se by joining the Avatar soon after.

She didn't even realize how important her choice was at this moment. Glaring down at the coward, rage and hate churning like the pull and push of the ocean she knew so well, Katara _froze_.

Swords of ice hovered in the air. All she could think about was this man and her mother, over and over in her mind's eye. It hurt. It hurt so much. She imagined killing him, stabbing and slicing him, again and again.

Though she remained ice inside, she let the blades melt into water and let the man go.

Never again would she think about killing; she started walking down the path she had chosen.


	2. The Deserter

Based on the episode title **The Deserter**.

* * *

It was way too easy to think of Fire Nation as bad and everyone else as good. As Sokka stared down at the man cowering before them, he felt that firm foundation beneath his feet crumble.

Aang let the man go. Of course. Enough begging for forgiveness and the Avatar couldn't resist showing off his mercy. Sokka watched the man run off and forced down the bile rising in his throat.

For the rest of the evening's travel on Appa's back, Sokka kept his back to the others, fighting the urge to vomit and cry at the same time. Chey and Jeong Jeong as deserters, he could approve - that made sense. But what mental disease did you have to have to make you defect to the Fire Nation?


	3. The Firebending Masters

Based on the episode title **The Firebending Masters.**

**

* * *

**

Sitting crosslegged, Aang juggled a small lick of flame between his fingers.

"Zuko?"

His firebending teacher had been staring out at the night, but turned his head to Aang with a raised eyebrow. "Hm?"

"I was thinking... You don't really count as a firebending master."

"Really."

"I mean, us going to the dragons _together_, and you don't have the power I've seen in other masters..."

Zuko's eyebrows drew together in a deep frown but Aang continued before he could say anything.

"And I think it's better that way!" Aang stopped juggling and studied the flame so he could concentrate on his thoughts instead. "I mean, Zhao was a master, and all he wanted to do was destroy. To him, fire was all about what he could get with it." He paused and glanced at Zuko to make sure his teacher was following. "Even Jeong Jeong, who is one of the best firebenders in the world only sees fire as something that destroys, even though he's a good guy. And Azula..."

He paused, letting the telling silence speak for itself, and they nodded together in complete agreement.

"Right. Then Iroh. Iroh is an amazing firebender and I think he knows the right way, but..."

Zuko turned to face Aang fully as the monk kept staring into the flame. "What?"

Aang looked back at him with a quiet smile. "But how am I supposed to believe that the Fire Nation is willing to learn and change without having you here?"


	4. Transcendence

Azula hated that she was a girl. When she thought about what it meant to be female, she thought of Mother and always wanted to vomit at the aura of gentleness that enveloped her. If Mother was an indication of what her future would be, Azula wanted no part of it.

She used to lie awake, dreaming about what she could do if only she were a boy, from plotting wickedly twisted political maneuvers to simply imagining how high she would have been able to jump in the Third Phoenician form.

Manhood was wasted on her dum dum of a brother.

As if waking from a dream, Azula looked at her own wallowing with disgust and knew that if she could imagine doing these things at all, she could do them as a girl. As the years passed, she measured what she could do. This was how a girl could do it. Then this was how a boy could do it. Then she got better than any boy.

She found ways to manipulate and talk around people that she knew she never would have tried unless she was female. While some things were harder, Azula realized that there were many useful things that came as easily as breathing to a girl. (The first time she'd tried her hand at intimidating someone by smiling at him, her hands shook from feeling the raw power of making a man bend with only an expression.)

Though men could be respected - Father was still a fierce and powerful ruler, after all - Azula no longer envied and imitated them. She remembered how she used to hate that her brother was blessed by birthright; she laughed herself silly at the memory.

She chose companions who faced different battles, for a leader needed different angles on any situation. Ty Lee, who had faced anonymity and chose a liveliness that would always be the opposite of fading into the background. Mai, who had looked at her place on the board and simply stopped caring because no one could hurt something that couldn't feel. Azula had watched through the years and approved.

She had different ideas about everything now. In the privacy of her thoughts, Azula allowed herself to marvel at how much she had learned simply by letting time pass.

Womanhood was still wrapped up in soft memories of Mother. Manhood was warped by bitter memories of Zuko receiving a power that she knew she deserved more. Neither one of them was an option.

Azula had challenged and forced herself to overcome both of these stamps of identity. To the world, Azula wouldn't be defined by petty labels of gender. Azula was something more.


End file.
